Shanghai stock exchange to get hi-tech system
THE Shanghai Stock Exchange will implement an instantaneous information disclosure system on Monday.
The new system will replace the regular briefings held on Fridays for listed companies and the need to make public announcements.
The exchange said yesterday the move would guarantee 'the justice, openness and fairness of information disclosure, benefiting the healthy development of the stock market.' Information will be delivered electronically through existing satellite transmission networks to business counters all over China for publication.
The exchange has asked its members to install facilities for instantaneous information disclosures for investors.
The exchange also plans to establish a system to monitor and control share dealings by a listed company's directors and managers.
The exchange said the move was in line with requirements of the national Company Law which became effective on July 1.
Meanwhile, a senior Chinese leader has heaped praise on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, signalling an important vote of confidence in the embattled market.
Hu Jintao, a member of the standing committee of the Communist Party's Politburo, visited the market on Tuesday.
'In just three or four years of development you have travelled a road that has taken others almost 100 years,' Mr Hu told exchange president Wei Wenyuan.
'You have done a fantastic job.' The Shanghai Stock Exchange, revived in 1990 as a flag-carrier of China's experiment with capitalist-style markets, has come under heavy pressure over the past several weeks which have seen a sharp slump.
Shanghai's communist authorities were infuriated by market rumours about the health of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
The rumours were especially embarrassing because they knocked investor confidence around the time of National Day celebrations on October 1 when the country was anxious to promote an image of strength and unity.
Shanghai's Communist Party-run Liberation Daily printed an angry editorial blaming institutions and wealthy investors for the rumours and saying those guilty must be punished.
A separate commentary in the paper blamed the city's securities media for printing sensationalist stories and even attacked the exchange for violating government policy by listing too many new shares.
The attacks deepened the market's gloom.
However, on Thursday, Shanghai's A index for domestically-traded shares surged by 10.64 per cent after the Shanghai Securities News reported that Beijing was pressing ahead with measures to boost prices.
Yesterday's report, said Mr Wei, told Mr Hu that his aim was to create a 'just, open and fair' trading system for the investing public.
He said that price information from the Shanghai market was now beamed by satellite to all parts of China, including Tibet.
